RIM's earnings just shy of expectations, expects boost

This entry was posted on April 16, 2010 by Pure Mobile.

The financial reports of wireless phone manufacturer RIM were announced today and it was pretty much good news across the board. The company set a new record for quarterly Unlocked BlackBerry Phone activations which resulted in an increase of 4.9 million accounts which brings their current total to 41 million subscribers. Also, annual revenue grew 35% to $15 billion versus the previous year. The only bit of bad news was that RIM missed their quarterly revenue expectations of $4.31 billion by about $230 million.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie was quoted as saying that RIM is “off to a great start in fiscal 2011 and expect strong shipments, revenue, subscriber and earnings growth in Q1." I would have to agree with his assessments and am particularly impressed with all of the new BlackBerry Unlocked Phone customers they were able to bring on board. With all of these new customer acquisitions it is easy to see why and how annual revenue grew 35%. While the fact that RIM did miss their current quarterly goals is a bit worrisome the overall big picture appears to be much more encouraging than this current quarter.

Perhaps RIM’s success is a sign that the economy is finally getting back on its feet as more and more consumers are willing to spend money on upgraded their mobile devices to a BlackBerry smartphone. It will be interesting to see if RIM reaches or exceeds their second quarter goals and continues with their upward trend for the entire year to match last year’s growth. It can also be expected to hear some more news about these numbers at next month’s all BlackBerry all the time WES show in Orlando, FL.